Titanium dioxide in face powders and eyeshadows: Developingan analytical methodology for accessing customer safety

Abstract

Background: Titanium dioxide (TiO2 ), a white powder, represents the opacifier used inmany products, including drugs, foods, cosmetics, paints, and dyes.Method: The Uv-Vis spectrophotometry was a particularly suitable technique toquantify TiO2 in the solutions obtained from cosmetics. In this work, we determinedthe TiO2 content in a total of 88 samples of eye shadows and face powders of differ-ent brands and costs. Before to analyse the samples, we developed the mineralizationand analysis method, in fact, fusion with potassium bisulphate would be very labori-ous because it must be carried out on one sample at a time and requires very longtimes, instead, the mineralization with the acid mixture and the aid of microwavesallowed us to solubilize six samples at the same time within 45 min.Results: From the results obtained, we can state that the highest concentrations of TiO2 are found in the eyeshadows with a maximum value of 36% in a blue eyeshadow.